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Does Rockin Green Cloth Diaper Detergent Work?

This past summer I introduced you to Rockin Green Cloth Diaper Detergent. Kim kindly sent me some samples and I eagerly used them all up. I was pleased: clothes smelled clean, cloth diapers smelled clean, no rashes occurred… two thumbs up.

However, after the samples were gone I went back to using my Kirkland’s Environmentally Friendly. I had a system that was working very well and I wanted to stick with it.

I still wondered after seeing Rockin Green everywhere on the internet how it worked out in the long term. Everyone was singing its praises and on paper it seems to be a fantastic natural, inexpensive, WAHM laundry detergent.

I contacted Kim and asked her if I could communicate with some of her long-time users. After typing up a questionnaire I sent it out to Rockin Green Customers.

The following Q&A is from Lynn:

1) How long have you been using cloth diapers?

I’ve been cloth diapering for almost 4 years (older child born 2005, cloth diapered her through potty learning in early 2008. Second daughter born early 2009 and have been cloth diapering her 100% since then)

2) What detergent were you using before Rockin Green?

Charlie’s, and I have also used Ecover and Allen’s.

3) Why did you make a switch?

I switched from Charlie’s because my daughter was getting a nasty burn from it – initially thoughts were that it was a yeast related issue, but changing the soap worked wonders for her redness.

4) What type of water do you have?

Average

5) What type of washing machine do you have?

Top loading HE machine (Whirlpool Cabrio HE)

6) How much Rockin Green do you add to each load?

Generally two Tbsp.

7) On average, how many cloth diapers are in each load?

15-ish.

8 ) How long have you been using Rockin Green?

Since June 2009.

9) Have you had in stink, repelling, or rash problems since using Rockin Green?

None whatsoever!

10) What scents have you used? What is your favorites? Any you don’t like?

My favorite scents are Cherry Almond and Cherry Lemonade, and will eventually try all the fruity sort of scents. I am not a big fan of Baby Powder (but not just in the soap, I don’t like “baby powder” anything).

Picked up my order locally, Kim is a wonderful person to talk to and bring your concerns about cloth diaper laundering to. She genuinely cares and stands behind her products, so she does whatever she can to help troubleshoot an issue.

13) What do you store your Rockin Green in? Scoop?

I keep it in a Tupperware container (sealed) and use the Rockin’ Green scoop from the website.

14) Do you use Rockin Green on all your laundry?

Absolutely! I am not one for a fancy routine so if I have to use more than one detergent… well it’s just not going to happen.

15) How clean do you feel your clothes are on a scale of 1-10? (1 being not clean, 10 super, fresh clean)

10! Rockin’ Green has helped get out stains that Allen’s And Charlies had let behind! I also feel like my whites are whiter.

16) Have you ever used Crunchy Clean or Tiny Bubbles? If yes, how would you compare it to Rockin Green?

I have not used the mentioned brands.

Lynn has been using Rockin’ Green for over 5 months. This is an adequate amount of time to test a detergent and determine if stink or build-up problems are going to occur. If you have specific questions about Rockin Green please ask them in the comments. Lynn (and myself) will answer them as best we can.

I am interested in her washing machine! We may have to get Lynn to talk with us about washing cloth diapers in an HE machine ;) Many of you have questions about them and by golly my husband just won’t run out and get me one…until my current one dies.

I can’t wait to hear more testimonials as they come in! Stay tuned to Rockin Green for several new things they have in store for 2010!

About Autumn Beck

Autumn is a wife, mother, homeschool teacher, friend and most important a follower of Christ. She began cloth diapering in 2005 and has experienced many joys and trials throughout the years. You can read more from Autumn over at https://www.facebook.com/beautifullyblessedlashes.

41 Responses to “Does Rockin Green Cloth Diaper Detergent Work?”

Do you still use Rockin’ Green? it is definitely my favorite laundry soap. I started using it for cloth diapers, too. I’m really loving the Athletic Wear formula right now because of how well it gets all the workout gear clean and smell free again. It’s the best!

Hi Tiffany! I’m so glad that you love it! It is a great natural choice. I don’t currently use it, but I did for a while. I only switched because I ran out and hadn’t ordered more, so I started using the Tide I had on hand and just stuck with it. But the Rockin’ Green is a much less toxic option than tide. So if it’s working for you stick with it!

Have been using Rockin Green for 9 months. Had one rash problem 4 months ago. Switched detergents, rash cleared up. Contacted rockin green, they told us to discard that package, and start a new one. This worked. No problems until this week. Opened a new bag, small rash started. We thought maybe food sensitivity. We then soaked the diapers over night in rockin green to remove built up oders as we’ve done in the past. The next night, the rash spread through the entire diaper area, and blistering developed along the midline. My daughter awoke screaming at 2 am. DANGEROUS PRODUCT!! CAUTION, MAY CLAUSE BURNS AND BLISTERING. WOULD NOT USE OR RECOMMEND. This product is too inconsistent to risk using on children.

I just have to mention:
I had horrible problems using pre-folds on my daughter. I starting using them the day I brought her home from the hospital, and about 3 months later, BAM, diaper rash like you wouldn’t believe. Literally overnight. I tried disposables, and they made the rash worse.
After using no diapers and keeping her on a waterproof pad, it finally dawned on me to try the pocket diapers I had. They cleared up the rash almost immediately. I sold all the prefolds and covers and bought a stash of Bum Genius 4.0’s, and she hasn’t had a rash since(well, she was allergic to Charlie’s soap, so there were rashes from that) But once I used my washing method I just described, no more rashes.
I thought I would let you know, b/c my daughter’s allergic reaction was so sudden and I thought I was doing something wrong, but it was just the type of diaper I was using…so maybe that’s also something to think about with your son’s rashes.
I asked around at my local cloth diaper store, and they told me to try stay-dry liners next to baby’s skin. Never tried it personally, but that’s what they told me. Good luck. Diaper rashes are frustrating!

Just wanted to let you know that the fabric in the BG 4.0 that is against baby’s bottom is called suedecloth and this is a stay-dry fabric so no matter how much baby pees, baby’s bum will always be dry. That’s most likely why the rashes disappeared. :)

Lissa and Laurie, you are not alone! I originally used Nature Clean powder on my son’s diapers (Bumboo fitteds), no problems with it. Then I switched to RG Hard Rock 2.0 because of all the great reviews… and the rash began. My son got a horrible burn-type rash on the inside of his thigh that nothing would get rid of, and it just kept getting worse. Then we spent a week at my dad’s house; he has no W/D, so we used eco-disposables… and the rash cleared up! Within a couple days of being home and back in the cloth diapers, the rash started to come back. I have stripped my diapers, putting my son back in disposables to clear up the rash again meanwhile. Yesterday we began using the stripped diapers with fingers crossed, but already this morning the area is looking red again. I have contacted Kim at RG, and she is kindly sending me a bag of the Classic to try, but I am worried that my diapers may be ruined!
Does anyone have any advice/comments to share?

Jonessa-Have you tried any Bac-Out on the diapers? I had the same issue from Charlie’s Soap and I cured it with unscented Rockin’ Green, a small squirt of Bac-Out and 1/4 cup baking soda. It makes the diapers really fresh and clean. Now I actually only use baking soda, Bac-Out and borax for all my laundry and my clothes have seriously never felt better. My daughter has the most sensitive skin in the world, so this works wonders for reducing irritation on her poor skin!(she takes after me in the hypersensitive skin department!)

No, I haven’t tried Bac-Out, I’ve actually never heard of it before! I just did a bit of reading about it, though, and I’m concerned about the fact that enzymes are the main functional ingredient – aren’t enzymes potentially quite irritating? I could give it a try, though.
So what is your wash routine? At what point in the cycle do you add those 3 things – all at the beginning?
Thanks for the advice!

Yep, just like Autumn said, in the pre-rinse. This is my routine:
1. First rinse/wash: I throw the dipes in with 1/4 cup baking soda, a squirt of Bac-Out, and (I forgot to mention before) 1 scoop Sun oxygen cleaner (not OxyClean). I use cold wash/cold rinse and make sure I set the machine to use plenty of water.
2. Second wash/rinse: Hot wash/cold rinse setting, again with lots-of-water. Throw in 1/4 c baking soda and 1/4 c borax(works better with the hot water) and sometimes a scoop of Sun, but not always.

If the dipes are stinky(not usually the case) I soak them overnight in Rockin’ Green(or Sun) and baking soda. I did a little research, and the Sun Oxygen main ingredients(sodium carbonate, sodium percarbonate) are the same as Rockin’ Green, and it’s waaaaay cheaper. It just doesn’t have the yummy smell. I’m a cheapskate. I like cute clothes instead of cute laundry detergents.
I have had really great results with this routine.
Other Mamas may disagree with my methods, but to each their own, right????
Hope this helps! :)

I had been using Charlie’s soap for my daughter’s diapers since she was born (11 months) and I was satisfied with it. No, it doesn’t smell great (it doesn’t have a scent) and it is not glamorous but it got my dipes clean. My hemp diapers would be pretty stinky in the morning after being peed in all night but the rest of my dipes were fine. I have normal average water. I was swayed by all the rave reviews for Rockin’ Green so I ordered some Classic Rock in the Motley Clean scent.
It smells great and I was super psyched about the switch, but after the first time washing my daughter’s diapers with it, she got really bad diaper rash. I kept using it for a couple of weeks and the rash got worse. Diaper rash cream was not helping and I didn’t know what was going on. I use mostly breathable covers (only wool at night and mostly fleece during the day) so I had never had this problem. I suspected the detergent so I switched back to Charlie’s Soap and the rash disappeared. I feel like I am the only one to have this problem. Anyone else out there notice their baby got a rash from this stuff?
Laurie, you are the only one I have seen with this problem. Plus, my diapers don’t smell any different than they did while using Charlie’s Soap.

From the reviews, I tried Charlie’s soap, and that was a huge mistake! I think it made my dipes more stinky than before, and they repelled big time. I went to my local cloth diaper store and she recommended Tide Free, which seems to work for the repelling issues, but now my DD is getting a major rash from her prefolds, but not her pockets.
I think I will give Rockin Green a try and see how her little bum likes it…
Oh, and I would NOT recommend Charlie’s to anyone!!!

I LOVE Rockin Green detergent. I have been CD’ing for 6 months and found rave reviews of this product. At first I had it shipped to me, but just found it at a new local store called Cutie Poops and Bottoms in Orland Park, IL. Love that she has samples there of all the great scents. I think the cherry almond is my fave!

I have been using Rock’n Green for about 3 months now and I am very happy with the results!!! I have used Allen’s, & Charlie’s and I like RG the best. My sink problem is no more and I have not had to strip my diapers once in 3 months. This reminds me… I am running low and can’t wait to reorder and try a new scent!!!

Ha! I just ordered some samples last Friday, so funny this post should come up. I expect that my goodies will arrive today and I am so excited to try it! I have an old-school washer, but pretty hard water (in Phoenix), and some definite staining on my BG. I look forward to “rocking a soak” and seeing what kind of miracles might occur.

I have a Kenmore HE front-loader and I love it. I had a regular washer before and it wasn’t getting my clothes clean (before I started cd). I do rinse my poopy diapers so maybe that is the difference. I sprinkle baking soda on or soak in water with baking soda first, do a cold rinse, then wash warm. I use soapnuts or pc free- I find the soapnuts don’t get the stains of bf poo quite as well. And I occasionally use vinegar (in the softener compartment). I have never had any stink issues. I have heard it is important to leave the washer door open when not in use.

I have been very interested in trying Rockin Green. I, too, have a front loader and have been using Crunchy Clean. It’s fine, but I would like to see if there’s something better. My only concern is borax. I’ve just heard TOO much that borax is NOT good for diapers (especially elastic, and we have fitteds and pockets that I expect to last for this baby!), and I can’t tell if it’s in there or not! Any clue?

I have been using Rockin Green ever since your post about it. I LOVE IT! My son has sensitive skin and I have a newborn daughter and it hasn’t caused a rash yet. I mainly use BG diapers and I have NO stink with the inserts. It has been a heaven sent detergent. I have a top loading HE machine (The same Cabrio mentioned in the above post) and have no trouble with it. Also, I was able to reduce my wash and rinse time by half. I have used Crunchy Clean and another popular one whose name escapes me right now and Rockin Green is by far the best. I have also used several (ok 5 or 6) store bought detergents.

I’ve been wanting to try a new detergent since I’m having major repelling issues with Country Save. I have to do a cold cycle, hot wash with 1/2 cup of detergent, hot wash again with nothing, then another cold wash with vinegar. My machine has no separate rinse option, it’s a full wash or nothing. If I use less detergent, or don’t run that many cycles they repel??????? So I don’t know if it’s a problem with what I’m doing or with the detergent. I’m all for trying Rockin’ Green but I need to know it will work for sure before I spend a lot of money (I’m in Canada and the shipping costs more than the detergent itself!).

One of the biggest problems with front loaders is the lack of water but you can usually combat that by doing a full wash cycle instead of rinses…and then finding ways to trick the washer into having more water. Throwing in a wet towel, finding the setting that has the most water…etc.

I have an HE front loader and hard water and I love Rockin’ Green Soap. I feel like I have to use a lot of it to get my diapers really clean (about 2 or 3 tablespoons) but its worth it. FWIW, I don’t use calgon or anything like that. I’d probably have to use less soap if I did. I usually just use it with my diapers to keep the costs down, but sometimes I’ll wash the rest of the laundry in the “good” soap. There’s a page on the rockin’ green site about using the front loaders and it gives specific directions for each one: http://rockingreensoap.com/?page_id=378

I have a front loading HE machine and haven’t had any of the problems Wendy mentions. For the most part I love it (especially for the spin cycle!). I will say we have to do a double-rinse on the diapers because once or twice we have ended up with a little bit of poo sitting in the door jam.

I have been using Crunchy Clean on my diapers for awhile now, and it seems to work fairly well. I would be curious how others think it compares to Rockin Green or the other detergents.

I used Charlies for 5 months and had to switch when i noticed my clothing was not getting clean. Rockin green solved that problem and took stains out of my diapers I had assumed were normal…they apparently were not normal ewwww! We were also getting major stinkies when the diaper was just wet, from bacteria and build up I assume. Now that is gone.

AS far as a HE machine here is my #1 love of it: The spin cycle is FAST and gets water out. I have a older cheapo dryer and just having a HE machine gets my clothing so much dryer in the spin cycle it decreases my drying time by at least half. This also helps in the summer by not having the dryer heat up the house by being on so long!

Thanks for the info Autumn! I use RG and have for months now. I have found that it really does get the diapers clean and they are stink free. I have to work a little harder at it since I have a front loader and they use very little water…but it is possible! I just have to wash a really full load, like 12-15 diapers and I use Bac-Out at least twice a month.(I usually stop the washer and let them soak) No repelling, no stink! I still have breastfed bright yellow poop to deal with so sometimes I have to sun the diapers for a day to get all the stains out, but so far so good.

For the love of your cloth diapers…don’t get a front loading HE machine! I have one and it causes me so much grief with my cloth diapers that I’ve actually considered going out and getting a second-hand top loader just for my diapers (and I’ve heard this from other cloth diapering moms using front loaders – it’s not just me).

I suppose my issues are compounded by being on well water, but it is treated (softener, UV filter, carbon filter) and I tried the Rockin’ Green detergent (as well as Crunchy Clean, Allan’s, Ecover…you name it) and all have caused stink build up (or not prevented it) and I have to wash my diapers 2 or 3 times until it doesn’t stink like pee when I open the washer door after the cycle finishes.

Although it sound like I may be, I’m really not domestically challenged…I can get my other laundry clean! If anyone using a front loader with success for their cloth diapers has any advice I’d love to hear it!

Wendy,
I realize this post was forever ago, but I’m wondering if you’ve figured out a way to get diapers clean. I just saw an article on cleaning diapers in a front-loader, and someone suggested pouring more water into the soap compartment. They said the problem was that the washer doesn’t use enough water for cloth diapers (they are so absorbent).

Hi. I have a front-loader. It’s a Whirlpool Duet. I do a cold rinse and spin, then a warm rinse which I cancel before it spins, then two heavy duty (hot) washes with the extra rinse turned on (with detergent in the first wash only.) Then just to be safe I do another rinse and spin. This routine has worked well for us. Hope it helps you.

I only recently have been researching cloth diapers and options for them. I hadn’t even thought of special detergent for them until one day on Facebook I saw the add for Rockin Green and I followed it and I liked what I saw both in cost and the option to get samples, oh and the unusual scents too. I fully intend to give it a try when I begin actually using the cloth diapers. My biggest question at the moment is… How does it work with hard water? We live about 10 miles out of a smallish town in Utah and so we actually have well water… So it’s pretty hard and unfiltered. Has anyone, you’ve known to use it, had hard and/or well water along with a regular efficiency washer? How has it worked for them?

I am curious about how well it works in hard water. I have SUPER hard water – I am talking it give you a concussion in the shower it is so hard (lol).

FWIW, I have a Kenmore HE 3T Front loader that I have used for diaper washing since 2006 – no real problems with it. The only detergent I have had work on a regular and long term basis is Tide Free. I would be happy to find a greener option.

I live in Las Vegas and our water is pretty hard here, I was having serious trouble getting my diapers clean and my clothes were looking yellower everytime I washed them. I got some samples of the Hard Rock version of “Rockin’ Green” and I love it! My clothes are cleaner, they smell way better, my diapers smell as good as new and my washer looks very different. I highly reccomend the Hard Rock to anyone in an area w/ hard water–I can’t wait till Rockin’ Green comes out with their hard water version of diswasher soap!